


Comeback With A Time Lag

by amcw177



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Community: fandomaid, M/M, smitten Aomine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-27
Updated: 2013-11-27
Packaged: 2018-01-02 19:15:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1060560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amcw177/pseuds/amcw177
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aomine finally realizes his feelings for Kuroko, but that's where the trouble really starts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Comeback With A Time Lag

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jarofclay](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jarofclay/gifts).



> Written for the [Typhoon Haiyan Buy It Now! Fundraiser](http://fandomaid.livejournal.com/60677.html) on LJ's FandomAid. The prompt was given by the lovely [jarofclay](http://archiveofourown.org/users/jarofclay/pseuds/jarofclay), who wanted: _aokuro fic with smitten, embarrassingly in love!aomine_
> 
> I don't know how well I delivered on the smitten part, but I'm pretty sure he's in love and it's all kinds of embarrassing.
> 
> Many thanks for beta-reading and for much appreciated suggestions to [andreaphobia](http://archiveofourown.org/users/andreaphobia/pseuds/andreaphobia). Any remaining mistakes are, sadly, my own. If you spot anything, let me know.
> 
> This also comes with a wee little soundtrack, that you can listen to while Aomine fumbles his way through this. Listen to it [here](http://8tracks.com/amcw177/comeback-with-a-time-lag). I hope you enjoy!

Aomine will likely not dispute the fact that when general life ambitions were handed out, his came with a lot of restrictions. If it doesn’t concern basketball, or being first in line for the new Mai-chan photo book, his interest usually takes a steep dive towards the point of nonexistence. This didn’t use to be an issue. His grades are fine—for someone who is wont to do his homework five minutes before class, and then it is mostly what Satsuki tells him to write. He does well enough on exams to not get kicked off the basketball team (which might be the only reason why he bothers anyway, see life ambition #1), and he even tries to do at least 10% of the compulsory reading himself before turning to the internet. Except for basketball, he hasn’t encountered anything that cannot be done with half-assed effort. Which is why this whole ‘love’ thing is so annoying. Apparently, you can’t just wing it.

\---

It took Aomine a while to realize it. First, there was this whole basketball business. He was angry at the world, and everyone in it, because they failed to be _better_. Everything was disappointing, and Tetsu was no exception. Then he became apathetic, because as it turns out, being angry at the world has no effect on it whatsoever, so you might as well save yourself the trouble. For a long time, Aomine didn’t feel much of anything. He waded through everyday life like a backpacking tourist through mud.

He wanted something to happen. He didn’t know what, but when it did, he could only think, _’But of course!’_. Aomine had made the mistake of lumping Tetsu in with everyone else. But seeing him again—getting _beaten_ by Tetsu and his principles—brought back the tight feeling in Aomine’s chest. He remembers; it used to be there all through his Teikō days, until his beef with the world swallowed it up. But it’s back with full force now. It’s not restricting... more like a constant feeling of being pulled forward. It keeps him on his toes, and it’s exciting.

To think that Tetsu isn’t at the center of all this would be stupid. And Aomine isn’t stupid. Lazy, maybe, but not dumb. He has his suspicions about the flurries in his stomach every time he meets Tetsu these days. And yet, it’s not until Satsuki rubs his face in it that he dares to address the problem with anything but denial.

“You have a problem, I hope you know that,” Satsuki says, walking next to him, lips pressed together in a disapproving pout. She has her hands so deep in the pockets of her coat that Aomine wonders if she keeps a couple of black holes in there. Aomine, on the other hand, is pleasantly warmed up from the little match he just played with Tetsu and two of his teammates.

Aomine gives Satsuki a sideways glance. “Huh?”

She buries her hands deeper in her pockets, fighting to stay upright against the icy breeze. “This is the fifth time this week that we came out here just so you could play basketball with Tetsu-kun.”

Aomine shrugs. “Nobody _made_ you come along.”

She swats his arm. Aomine is surprised she was able to extract her hand from that black hole pocket of hers. “You really think I would let you come out here alone? Who knows what kind of idiocy you would come up with if I had!”

“We were just playing basketball,” Aomine argues. “What could possibly go wrong?”

Satsuki rolls her eyes at him. “You would find a way.”

“You’re acting like I cause mayhem and mass destruction wherever I go,” Aomine snorts.

“I wouldn’t go so far…” Satsuki says, her voice trailing off ominously in the end.

“But?”

She stops in the middle of the sidewalk, throwing her hands up. “You are making your life and the lives of the people around you more difficult than they need to be.”

Aomine blinks owlishly. “I do?”

“Yes,” she insists. She steps from one foot onto the other, hesitant. “Dai-chan, you need to tell him,” she says, eventually.

Aomine squints. “Tell who what?”

“Tetsu-kun,” she sighs, eyeing him with a worrying amount of sympathy. “You like him, don’t you?”

Aomine isn’t sure where this is going, but in any case, he would like to take the nearest exit. “Sure,” he says, cautiously. “He’s a friend. We’re friends. Guy friends.”

Satsuki gives him a look that is half pained childhood friend and half disgruntled home room teacher. She clutches Aomine’s face with both hands until his cheeks obscure his view, and stares him down. “Dai-chan, you are in love with him.”

It takes a moment to sink in. First, he thinks she is making fun of him, then he realizes she is dead serious. And then, it occurs to him that he doesn’t think it’s funny either.

“Ffwhat?” He sputters, batting her hands away. “What? I-... He’s a guy!”

“So?”

“ _So?_ ” Aomine flails. “He’s a guy, Satsuki! I know because I’ve seen him naked!”

She waves it off. “That was in middle school. How do you feel about seeing him naked _now_?”

Aomine stares at her. He hasn’t actively thought of Tetsu naked. Not in the strictest sense of the word. Sure, sometimes, when he’s in the locker rooms at Tōō he remembers their Teikō days, and, okay, maybe then he imagines Tetsu in the Seirin locker rooms... and, fine, so he does picture Tetsu naked. What of it? “That doesn’t mean anything,” he mumbles, more to himself than to her.

She takes both his hands into hers, looking at him with all the love and pity of a friend who has watched him turn from a chubby little toddler into an energetic school boy, and, eventually, into a knobbly potato of internalized rage and disappointment. “Dai-chan, this isn’t easy for me to say. You know I like Tetsu-kun a lot—”

“Have you pictured him naked?”

She tugs him down by his arms, snarling in his face, “Dai-chan, be serious! I am trying to tell you that I would be okay with you and Tetsu-kun getting together, even though I think you really need to clean up your act if you want anything to happen—”

“Whoa!” Aomine disentangles himself in a fit of panic. “Nonono, there is no ‘getting together’. I’m not... I mean... I would have noticed, don’t you think?”

Satsuki shakes her head in exasperation. “I love you like a brother, Dai-chan, but some days I think you wouldn’t even notice if you got hit by a truck.”

Aomine frowns. “I should be offended by that, shouldn’t I?”

She tugs him along by his sleeve, sighing. Grudgingly, Aomine falls into step beside her. “It’s just a phase,” he mumbles into the upturned collar of his jacket. “People have this phase, right?”

She glances at him, a pitying smile on her face. “I don’t know about other people, but I’m pretty sure you’ve liked Tetsu-kun since middle school, so I think it’s safe to say that this ‘phase’ is veering towards permanent.”

Aomine mulls this over for a few minutes. He doesn’t have much experience in liking anyone. Granted, he likes Satsuki, but she has been there all his life. She has seen him lick frogs, which he then stuck in her hair. Aomine figures this has squashed all chances of any romantic feelings ever blossoming between them. He guesses he likes Kise, if ‘liking’ implies that Aomine doesn’t have to see him too often. Kagami is okay, too. He’s a bit of an oaf, but at least they can agree on basketball and Tetsu. Tetsu—now, there’s a person Aomine can’t explain.

With everyone else, Aomine can tell why he likes them—or, at least, why he doesn’t find them annoying. But with Tetsu, it’s different. He enjoys being around Tetsu simply for the sake of being together. In fact, he enjoys it so much that he’s spent the majority of his time lately going out of his way to rope Tetsu into friendly basketball games. He used to think it was just because of his rekindled spirit, but maybe it’s less about the fire than it is about the spark.

It still doesn’t mean he’s _in love_ with Tetsu. He has no idea what that’s supposed to feel like. He needs more experience points. You can’t tell a player style from just one basket. You need to watch the whole game.

“He’s just a friend,” Aomine decides firmly, and stalks past Satsuki.

He can hear her heave a sigh. “This is going to take forever.”

\---

After several days of aggressively avoiding Satsuki and any sort of conversation involving romance, relationships, love, and/or Tetsu, Aomine has holed himself up in his room. He is currently balancing a pencil on his upper lip, while contemplating the general circumstances of his life.

It seems that he can no longer uphold the argument of Tetsu being a platonic friend. He has given it some thought, and it would seem that this friendship has somehow evolved into this needy, longing kind of thing that Satsuki apparently calls ‘love’—all of which without Aomine noticing. Well, maybe he did notice, but there was a thick layer of guilt that covered everything like grime. Satsuki, as is her way, merely handed him the cleaning utensils. The actual cleaning, though, is up to him.

He tries the logical route, trying to figure out what makes his feelings now so different from all the times before. Apart from being really fucking comfortable around Tetsu, apparently he also really wants to touch Tetsu’s dick. It’s on his mind _all the damned time_. This imbalance between ‘I like the things you do’ and ‘I would like to do you’ is greatly confusing. How do people deal with this bullshit?

He pulls up his laptop and starts googling.

In retrospect, browsing a gay porn site might not have been the best of choices, but certainly the most enlightening. Aomine didn’t know he could both want to bend Tetsu over the kitchen table and fuck his brains out, and do nothing but kiss him lovingly for an entire afternoon.

Aomine inclines his head, attempting to comprehend the position the two dudes are currently in, and how it can possibly be comfortable. He is so engrossed that he doesn’t notice his visitor until she shouts, “Dai-chan!”

Aomine slams his laptop shut. His heart is in his throat when he whirls around in his swivel chair. “Can’t you knock?”

Satsuki frowns. “I did.” She shuffles closer, curiously inspecting his desk. “Dai-chan, are you studying?” She sounds far too surprised for Aomine’s taste.

“Yes,” he lies. He tries to avoid looking at the laptop.

She narrows her eyes at him. “You weren’t studying, were you?” Before Aomine can react, she reaches for the laptop and wrenches it open. “What were you do—... oh. _Oh!_ ”

Aomine desperately tries to drive her away, clutching the laptop to his chest. “I was doing research!”

“For what?” She cranes her neck to look at the text books strewn across Aomine’s desk. “Math? Your examples must be vastly different from mine.”

Aomine puts the laptop back, careful to keep it out of Satsuki’s reach. “I wanted to know...” he waggles his hands vaguely.

She eyes him for a moment, before heaving a dramatic sigh, and flopping down on the bed. She pulls him closer with his chair. “Look, I know this is a difficult time for you—”

“How would you know?” Aomine snarls. “Have you recently found out that you have a crush on your best friend... wait.” He frowns. “You don’t have a crush on _me_ , do you?”

She gives him a look that couldn’t be more horrified if she tried. “No, Dai-chan, I’m not in love with you. And I wasn’t referring to that, either. I meant the fact that you finally admitted to being in love with Tetsu-kun.”

“I didn’t admit to anything!”

Satsuki makes a move for the laptop again but this time Aomine is faster. He shoves it in his school bag, making a point of zipping it shut. She sighs, “You googled gay porn, and you want to tell me that wasn’t about Tetsu-kun?”

“I...” Aomine squirms. “No?”

“So, you were not thinking about Tetsu-kun while watching that?”

Aomine remembers the kitchen table thing and cringes.

Satsuki pats his thigh, as if to comfort him. Sadly, Aomine doesn’t need comfort; he needs Tetsu on a kitchen table. “You know...” she starts. “Why don’t you take it slow? Maybe you should get to know Tetsu-kun a little better before you start discussing sex positions with him.”

Aomine cocks his head to the side, confused. “But I already know Tetsu.”

She shakes her head in exasperation and gets up. “No. You know why _you_ like Tetsu-kun. But you have no idea what _he_ likes or why he should like _you_.”

All Aomine hears is ‘blah blah blah Tetsu-kun blah blah’. Too many conditions.

Satsuki eyes him critically, tilting his chin up. “Okay, I can see you have no clue what I’m talking about.”

“I do,” Aomine grumbles, swatting her hand away. “I’ll come up with something.”

“ _Something_ ,” Satsuki echoes, her shoulders sagging. “Just spend time with him, Dai-chan.” She pokes him in the shoulder, “ _Off the court_. It’s not that hard.” She turns around and leaves. Aomine realizes he never found out what she came here for in the first place.

\---

Aomine does not do ‘getting to know someone’ well. The people he likes and cares about, he’s met through basketball, and people who don’t play basketball don’t interest him anyway. So, this is a problem. He is supposed to find out stuff about someone who does play basketball, but off the court. Like _conversation_. Conversation that does not revolve around a) a ball game or b) Mai-chan. The latter of which Aomine already knows Tetsu does not enjoy talking about, so, hey, that has got to earn him some points.

Since Aomine feels pretty awkward asking Tetsu about personal tastes after years of knowing him, he resorts to other reconnaissance techniques: he follows Tetsu around.

He even goes through the trouble of buying a small notebook to jot down ideas, but after the second day it is mostly filled with drawings of boobs and faces with hilarious mustaches. Tetsu’s life, aside from the court, is not exactly an adrenaline-fueled roller coaster ride. He attends practice with almost religious dedication, he likes to walk home with the oaf (a fact that Aomine notes with considerable distress), and he sometimes stops at odd places to just stare at something. He spends an unbelievably large amount of time in bookshops, yet never seems to buy anything. Aomine is close to scrapping this plan when he catches Tetsu walking into a sports equipment store.

Aomine strolls across the plaza, and peers between the mannequins in the windows. He sees Tetsu take the escalators to the first floor. Aomine counts to ten in his head and then follows him.

Upstairs, Aomine witnesses something like an internal struggle. Tetsu wanders through the rows of sports shoes like a hungry bear. Or maybe possibly a meerkat or something. Either way, he keeps coming back to the shelf prominently displaying the newest models. A light blue version seems to have caught his eye. Aomine loses count how many times Tetsu picks them up, and examines them from all angles. He doesn’t buy them, though.

Aomine hides behind a cardboard cutout of some supposedly famous cyclist as Tetsu walks out of the store with empty hands. They play that game at approximately half the stores in the city. Tetsu walks in, ogles the same pair of shoes for about twenty minutes, and then leaves without buying so much as a shoelace.

Tetsu leaves the last store a few minutes before closing time. Aomine figures there is no use in following him since he will most likely head home. So, Aomine stays and picks up the pair of shoes Tetsu has been staring at for the greater part of the day. Good grip, maybe a bit too stiff in the back for his taste, but otherwise perfectly fine. He can’t fathom why Tetsu didn’t buy them. Clearly, he is on the lookout for new shoes, so why—

Aomine turns the shoe around and notices the price tag. “Oh,” he gulps and carefully puts it back on its stand. Personally, the price doesn’t shock him, but he understands how it would Tetsu. So, that’s what Tetsu has been doing all day long: Looking for the cheapest offer. Judging by his disappointed expression, he didn’t find any that he could afford.

Well, Aomine thinks he can help with that.

\---

Aomine comes back the next day. There wasn’t enough time to get the money and get back to the store before it closed, so Aomine actually crawls out of bed before midday on a Saturday to make his way into the city.

He is squatting in front of the rows of boxes, searching for the right size when he hears two familiar voices.

“I’ll go look upstairs,” Tetsu says, and Aomine panics. He frantically tugs at the box marked size 25. It dislodges, together with the rest of the stack, which all comes tumbling down around Aomine. He grabs the box and stumbles away before Tetsu reaches the first floor.

Aomine slinks through the bicycle department, keeping an eye on Tetsu, who is making his way through the mess of boxes. He uses the moment when Tetsu helps the store clerk put the pile back together to subtly make his exit.

“That was close,” he mumbles as he steps off the escalator, and promptly bumps into someone.

“Aomine?”

Aomine looks up in horror. “Kagami.”

“What’ve you got there?” Kagami points at the shoe box in Aomine’s hands.

Aomine slips it behind his back. “Nothing.”

Kagami’s eyebrows draw together in a frown. “Are you trying to steal those?”

“What?” Aomine yelps. “No! Of course not.” And while he is busy denying any criminal intentions whatsoever, Kagami reaches around him and plucks the box from his hands. “No, no, give that back!” Aomine grabs for the box, but Kagami holds him at bay.

“Hey,” Kagami says, after peeking at the shoes inside. “These are the ones Kuroko has been eyeing… for… weeks.” It’s like watching a tape slowly reach its end. Kagami looks at him, then back at the box, and back at Aomine. Eventually he pulls one shoe out of the box, dangling it in front of Aomine’s face. “Bit small for you, eh?”

Aomine has had enough. “Give me that,” he growls, snatching both shoe and box, and tucking them firmly under his arm. He seizes Kagami up, waving a warning finger under his nose, “Not a word to Tetsu.”

“About what?” Kagami laughs while Aomine stalks on ahead to the cashier’s desks. “That you tried to steal a pair of shoes to flirt your way back into Kuroko’s heart?”

“I wasn’t trying to steal them, you stupid fucking oaf!” Aomine yells back, realizing too late that this might be the wrong part to dispute. But what’s done is done. Tetsu is coming down the stairs, obviously attracted by the ruckus.

Aomine ducks out of the way, and hides behind a bunch of canoes until Tetsu and Kagami have left the store. He contemplates sending Kagami a threatening text for good measure, but fears that might actually encourage him. He can only hope that Kagami will keep his mouth shut. This is marginally better than flowers or chocolate, and it’s Aomine’s best idea to date. He doesn’t want the idiot to ruin it; Kagami is already dangerously close to getting his shoes superglued to the locker room floor as it is.

\---

It’s a little after 7, and Aomine is standing in front of Tetsu’s door, possibly looking like a very indecisive thief. He keeps shifting the shoe box from one arm under the other, alternating between almost ringing the doorbell and not quite knocking. He even put a little bow on the box. Granted, it’s a little lopsided, and one side got wet when he accidentally spilled some Pocari over it, but all in all, he is sure it shows that he made an effort. That’s what bows are for, right?

He walks another circle in front of the door, before stepping up to it once more. He is just about to knock when he hears chatter inside the house. Aomine stares at the door, then at the package in his hands. What if it’s Tetsu’s mother? Or worse: What if it’s Tetsu? What is he gonna say? _’Hi, Tetsu, I have brought you shoes, so please love me’?_

He clearly didn’t think this all the way through. The voices are drawing closer to the door, and now there’s some shuffling and rustling, and Aomine gives up. He tosses the box into the bushes a few feet away, and steels himself for the upcoming embarrassment.

The door opens and it’s indeed Tetsu. “Aomine-kun!”

“Hi!” Aomine waves. He winces at the way his voice seems to travel for miles in these streets, and scales it down a little. “Hi. Hello. Uhm…”

Tetsu nods, frowning. “Hello to you, too.” He drags a trash bag out onto the street, stopping when Aomine does nothing but stand there like the world’s most inconveniently placed tree. “What are you doing here? Is something wrong?”

The tension in Aomine’s shoulders snaps like a broken rubber band. He folds in on himself like a wet party hat. “You see me, and you immediately assume something’s wrong?”

Tetsu seems to contemplate this. He shrugs. “Experience.” He walks on, pulling the trash bag along like a smelly aftermath of his words.

Aomine trudges after him. He should have kept the shoes. But he can’t go rummaging around the bushes for a discarded present now. So, he needs to make this work with empty hands. “Wait, let me,” Aomine offers, when Tetsu struggles with hauling his wobbly trash bag into the large bin.

Tetsu hesitantly lets go of the plastic bag and steps back, wiping his hands on his pants. “Thank you.”

“No problem.” Aomine grins. “I’ll dump your trash any time.”

Tetsu gives him a doubtful glance, and Aomine cringes. “I meant, I’m always happy… to… help.”

The degree to which his mouth is not cooperating today is unbelievable. _’I’ll dump your trash.’_ What the fuck is wrong with him?

“What brings you here so late?” Tetsu inquires, politely ignoring Aomine’s verbal accident.

Well, shit. He didn’t prepare for that. Or rather, he did—he had a pair of shoes. Without them he has no reason to be here, except his burning desire to be in Tetsu’s life, and, if possible, also his pants. “I... uhm...” Aomine sputters. “I went for a walk.”

Wow, that was… lame. He might as well have jumped into the bushes to search for his shoe box.

Naturally, Tetsu points out the flaw in his lie. “A walk,” he deadpans. “Aomine-kun, you live in Nishi-Tokyo. That’s a five hour walk.”

Aomine would like to leave now, but that would be counterproductive. So, he hangs on—with nails and teeth, if necessary. “I...” he wrings his hands. “I may have walked onto a train.”

“You walked onto a train. By accident.”

Aomine gives a helpless shrug. “I was thinking about stuff?”

Tetsu heaves a sigh, smiling. “Why are you _really_ here?”

“What? I can’t drop by and visit my friend?” Aomine jokes. The laughter gets stuck in his throat when Tetsu hems and haws.

“Of course you can,” Tetsu says, but it sounds like forced politeness, and that hurts. “It’s just that…”

“Just what?” Aomine’s smile is frozen on his face. He tries to steer the conversation away from potentially depressing waters by playfully shoving at Tetsu’s shoulder. “Come on, I used to be here all the time in middle school. I practically lived here.”

“Yes,” Tetsu looks up at him, but not with the sort of expression Aomine hoped to see. “That’s exactly the problem.”

Oh, so now he’s _a problem_. That’s definitely not the way Aomine envisioned this to go. “What?” Aomine swallows hard. He feels like someone is pushing him over. Almost subconsciously, he takes a step backwards. “Why is that a problem?”

Tetsu gives him a sad look. “Because you can’t just show up unannounced anymore. A lot of things have happened since middle school, and you can’t pretend that they didn’t. You can’t just pick up where you think we’ve left off.”

“But...” Aomine doesn’t know what to say. He thought Tetsu was okay with them being friends, and subsequently, maybe, with being more than that. He was so scared of telling anyone, least of all Tetsu, about his feelings that he never even considered being rejected. “I wasn’t—” he babbles on, but it makes little sense. “I never pretended...”

Tetsu smiles, but it’s thin, and Aomine is beginning to think that arguing against Tetsu’s point is only going to prove it. So, Aomine just stands there, dumbfounded, and says nothing.

“Well, now that you’re here, would you like to come in?” Tetsu suggests, after a minute of awkward shuffling.

Aomine doesn’t think he can stand to be in Tetsu’s home right now; with Tetsu being polite and accommodating, like he would be with any guest. The thing is: Aomine doesn’t want to be just _any guest_. He wants to be at home here. “Ah, no,” he says. “Thanks, but… I should... you know. I should go home. It’s late and there’s… stuff.” He turns to leave, cringing at his terribly acting skills.

“Aomine-kun, wait!” Tetsu calls after him, but Aomine keeps on walking. He feels like he might freeze to death if he stops now. So he just waves over his shoulder.

“It’s… it’s okay. I’ll call ahead next time!”

He rounds the corner, not quite running (because that would be pathetic) and doesn’t pause until he is back at the train station. His fingers have gone cold, which is unusual for him. He starts working some feeling back into them. It’s not until the train arrives that he notices he should be carrying something.

“Aw, shit.” Aomine looks back at the exit, contemplating going back to pick up the box. But what if Tetsu saw him? Or his parents? How would that look: him digging through a bunch of bushes for a pair of shoes he discarded in a fit of panic. No, he’s had enough embarrassment for one day. If Tetsu finds them, well, he will at least have the new shoes he wanted so much. Maybe it’s better this way. After tonight’s talk, Aomine doubts Tetsu would have reacted well to such a gift. Best case scenario: someone else will pick them up, and nobody will ever know about this depressing chapter of his life.

\---

Aomine sits at his desk, head bent low over his books. It’s been five days since he saw Tetsu, but he is still waiting for it to hurt less. His mind keeps going back to it, which makes studying even harder than usual. It’s like a bandaid continuously being peeled off the inside of his skull.

Tetsu texted him the day after, suggesting a quick game after school, but Aomine never wrote back. He can’t go back to this friends thing now. It’s just not enough. But he can’t stay away from Tetsu entirely either. So, in his misery, he decides to do nothing. 

For lack of things to do, Aomine has taken to studying. Well, ‘studying’ is an exaggeration. He has been looking at the same page for roughly twenty minutes, and he is still at chapter one.

At least this time, he does notice Satsuki when she comes in. She skips over to his desk, peeking over his shoulder. “Hey,” she says. “What are you do... Oh my God, Dai-chan, are you studying?” She lifts his books and notebooks, peering underneath.

Aomine wrenches his notes from her hands, and glares at her. “Yes. I do that sometimes.”

She sits down on the bed, giving him a mournful look. “It didn’t go well with Tetsu-kun, huh?”

Aomine doesn’t answer.

“What did he say?” Satsuki asks.

Aomine shrugs, pretending to be extremely interested in this math problem. “Not much,” he mumbles. “He thinks too much has happened.”

“And your response to that is to go incommunicado for almost a week?”

Aomine looks up, horrified. “He talked to you about that?”

“Not directly.” She fiddles with her sweater. “But when you didn’t reply to his text he called me to ask if you were alright.”

That is a really good question. “And?”

She shrugs her shoulders. “I told him you had some things to figure out and that I was sure you would call him.”

“Satsuki!” Aomine wails. “You... why did you tell him that?”

“Because it’s the truth,” she says, matter-of-factly. “I won’t lie to Tetsu-kun, just because you decide to be a coward.”

“I am not a coward!” Aomine sputters.

She scowls at him. “Then why are you still sitting here?”

“Because he doesn’t want to see me!” Aomine yells. They blink at each other in shock.

“He...” Satsuki says. “He said that?”

“Well, no,” Aomine grumbles, reluctant. “Not in as many words.”

“Then what _did_ he say?” She sighs.

Aomine starts picking at his textbooks. “He said I couldn’t just stop by anymore like I did back then. He thinks I want to pick up where we left off.” He gestures vaguely, “You know, before everything went kind of… sideways.”

“And do you?”

“No!” Aomine frowns. “Well, yes. I mean, sure, who wouldn’t? It was awesome back then. But that’s not why I want to be, you know, _that_ with Tetsu.”

Satsuki smiles, “ _That_? You mean boyfriends?”

Aomine slumps lower in his chair, doodling aggressive-looking circles on top of his history notes. “Whatever.”

Satsuki laughs. It annoys Aomine. This is no laughing matter. He is in agony here!

“Dai-chan,” she says softly. “If you can’t even say it to me, then how is Tetsu supposed to know?”

Aomine gives a defiant shrug.

She scoots closer. “He’s the one who needs to hear all this, not me. And he was worried when he didn’t hear from you, so I doubt he never wants to see you again. I don’t think there will ever be a time when he doesn’t want to see you.”

In his growing frustration, Aomine starts stabbing his notebook with his pen. “But how...,” he breaks off, taking a deep breath. “How? I can’t even look at him right now.”

Satsuki gives this some thought. “Well,” she says eventually, smirking. “Technically, you don’t have to be looking at him.”

\---

This is the stupidest thing Aomine has ever been forced to do, and that’s saying something. He did lose a few bets back in Teikō, and teammates can be merciless.

He creeps up to Tetsu’s door, checking both ends of the street for passers-by. There is no one in sight, but that’s not surprising. It is long past 9 P.M., so there aren’t many commuters around. Everyone who isn’t working nights is most likely at home. He realizes that this means he is probably going to get arrested.

Well. Better get this over with soon then.

He takes another look at his cards. Satsuki made them. She really should have numbered them, though. He clears his throat.

“Tetsu?” He shouts, a bit hesitant at first. “Tetsu, if you’re there, I need to tell you something.” He strains his ears for any sign of movement from inside the house. The light is on in Tetsu’s room, Aomine can see that much, and Satsuki told him Tetsu’s parents are out with friends. So he has to assume that it’s indeed Tetsu.

“Look,” Aomine goes on. “You don’t have to come down here or anything, I just need you to listen, okay?”

“Damn, can’t you call him?” The shouting comes from the house to Aomine’s left. A ragged-looking man in his forties is glaring daggers at Aomine from his window.

“No, I can’t!” Aomine shouts back, irritated. “This is important!”

“Write him a letter, you insolent little twerp!”

“Shut up, I’m trying to have a moment here!”

“Have that moment somewhere else! There are people trying to sleep here!”

“Oh, do shut up,” a woman appears in the window across the street. “You weren’t sleeping. You were playing your stupid video games!”

Aomine is a little confused, following the exchange. He didn’t know street theater went both ways.

“I was not!” The man is close to hyperventilating, by the looks of it.

The woman barely glances at him. “Sure you were. I can see in your window.” She leans on her window pane, pointing wildly. “And you were wearing your headphones, too! So shut up and give the kid a break. At least he’s doing something meaningful.”

Both Aomine and the guy blink at her. The man slams his window shut then, flustered.

She turns her attention to Aomine, smiling kindly. “Never mind him. He has no sense for romance. Come on, go on, dear.”

“Erm… thank you,” Aomine replies, a little unsure what to do now that he has an audience. He flicks through his cards, but they are not very helpful. He’ll have to improvise. “Okay, okay,” he squints up at Tetsu’s window. “So, what I came here to say was: I thought about what you said the other day, and you were right. We can’t go back to the way it was, because I...,” he winces. “I kind of fucked that up. Okay, I thoroughly fucked it up. And... and I know that now! But, err…”

“Say you’re sorry!”

Aomine turns around to find another spectator hanging out his window. This time it’s an elderly bloke two houses down.

“I... uhm, yes, thank you,” Aomine nods at the old man. “I was gonna come to that.”

“Get a move on, son, or he might fall asleep,” Tetsu’s immediate neighbor muses. It’s a young guy, maybe five years older than Aomine, and he is leaning on his balcony, eating a carrot.

“I’m sorry, but can you all please shut up?” Aomine whines, waving his cards around. “I’ve got this, okay?”

“Okay,” the young guy shrugs. “Your funeral.”

There is some concurring mumbling amongst the neighbors, yet no one leaves. “Fine,” Aomine scowls at them, and turns back to Tetsu’s window. “Okay, where was I… Ah, yes. So, the thing is, I know that I can be kind of a dick sometimes. And I reckon I didn’t go easy on you and everybody else back in middle school. And I’m sorry for that.” He glances at the grandpa, who gives him a thumbs up.

“I was angry,” Aomine continues with a sigh. “And I was taking it out on you. That was a—”

“A dick move?” Carrot neighbor suggests with a shit-eating grin.

“Yes,” Aomine growls. “I suppose it was. Anyway, I wanted to say that I’m sorry. I’m sorry for disappointing you. You wanted a friend and I failed to be one. I get that. And, trust me, I won’t forget about this for the rest of my life. So, there.”

There is some cheering and knocking on window panels in agreement. Aomine doesn’t dare look around. It sounds like the whole street is listening in by now. “Alright, so… I guess what I mean to say is: You’re right, things have changed. But that doesn’t mean it has to be all bad?” He flinches. He didn’t rehearse that part at all. “I’m not trying to pretend nothing happened, because it’s part of me. It’s part of _this_ , of us. And it’s brought me here, so it can’t be that bad, right?”

“Come on, say it!” A young woman screams from way down the street. Sound does travel well in this damned neighborhood.

Aomine rolls his eyes. He’s not there yet. “See, because of all of what happened recently, with the Winter Cup and everything, I’ve realized how much I, uhm, well… how much I like you.” He coughs to cover up his nervousness. He can hear a few people giggling. What an utter nightmare.

However, he stands up straight, bracing himself for what he’s about to say. “What I want to say is: Tetsu? I like you. I can’t promise you that I won’t be a bit of a—”

“Dick.”

Aomine lets out an exasperated breath. “Yes. But I promise that I will try to be less of one. Because of you. For you. I mean...” He closes his eyes, and gets it out in one go. “What I mean is that I’m probably in love with you. Shit, I mean, I’m pretty sure I am. I... okay, screw it. I love you, okay? Kuroko Tetsuya, I love you.”

There is cheering, and whistling. Some people are shouting, some are clapping. Even the carrot guy is saluting him. A tentative smile is beginning to spread on Aomine’s lips. He must have done well if the whole neighborhood is in agreement like this. However, when the noise dies down nothing happens.

“Uhm, Tetsu?” Aomine tries. “Tetsu, are you there? Please tell me you’re there.” His inquiries are met with silence. “Erm… Tetsu, can you at least say something, please? We’re all waiting here.”

If there were crickets in this part of town, they would be hearing them right about now. The entire street is holding its breath. And then, _finally_ , the door lock clicks, and Tetsu steps out.

“Aomine-kun.”

Aomine thinks he might explode from all the relief that’s washing over him. At the very least, he wasn’t confessing his love to Tetsu’s grandmother, or an empty house. “Hey,” Aomine greets, a little over-enthusiastic. “Hi!”

“What are you doing out here?”

Aomine blinks. “What am I... Didn’t you hear a word of what I just said?”

Tetsu gives him a blank stare, and Aomine feels his heart drop. “Oh. Oh my God, you... I... oh, shit,” he squeezes his eyes shut. He’ll have to say it again. All of it. To Tetsu’s face. “Oh, shit,” he reiterates for emphasis. “Okay, okay, let me rewind. I’ll... I can do this.” He frantically shuffles through his cards, half of them tumbling to the ground in the process.

Tetsu’s hand gingerly touches his. When Aomine looks up Tetsu is smiling. “I said, what are you doing out here, when you could be inside with me?”

Aomine’s mouth operates without his consent at this point. “With... with you? Inside. You... so you did hear me!”

Tetsu nods. His hand is now firmly clasped around Aomine’s. “Every word.”

“And you still let me go through all of it?”

“Yes,” Tetsu says sternly. “You needed to realize some things before we could move on.”

“Move… on?” Aomine squints. “What exactly do you mean by ‘move on’?”

Tetsu tugs at his hand. “Come inside with me and I’ll show you.”

Aomine’s mouth hangs open for a second before his mind catches up. This is happening. This is _actually happening_. “Wait, wait, wait,” Aomine stops, and turns around. Tetsu eyes him with curiosity, but it doesn’t seem to put him off, so Aomine goes ahead and takes a step out onto the street.

“Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for listening. And for not calling the police, I suppose. I’ll be here… a lot more often now so, get used to it. Thank you and good night!” He tosses the rest of his cards into the air, and bows before following Tetsu inside to the sound of cheers.

\---

Three days later, they meet up with Kagami and Kise to shoot some hoops. Kise’s attention immediately zooms in on Tetsu.

“New shoes!” he exclaims, and Aomine almost drops his water bottle.

“Ah, yes.” Tetsu toes off his street shoes, carefully slipping into his new footwear. “The oddest thing happened. I found them in the bushes in front of our house. Still in the box.”

Aomine pulls his towel over his head in an attempt to disappear. He never mentioned the shoes.

“Who would throw those away?” Kise muses.

“I couldn’t say.” Tetsu elbows Aomine in the side. “Any idea who they might belong to?”

“No idea.” Aomine means to tug the towel further down his face, but Tetsu is faster. He snatches it away, revealing Aomine’s failed attempt at schooling his expression into something nonchalant.

“And you know what’s even stranger?” Tetsu goes on, obviously loving this. He twirls Aomine’s towel in his hands, smiling. “There was a little bow attached to the box, too.”

“Uh… weird.” Aomine coughs loudly. “So, uhm, can we get this game rolling or what?”

“I call dibs on Kurokocchi!” Kise bounces up and down in unbridled excitement. The shoe question seems forgotten.

“Nonono, Tetsu’s with me,” Aomine declares.

Kise tries his trademark pout. “Aw, come on.”

“Quit whining, and let’s play,” Kagami interrupts, tossing the ball at Kise. “We can switch teams later.”

Kise makes an indignant noise, but heads for the court anyway, dribbling the ball while playfully evading Kagami’s mock defense. Tetsu remains behind with Aomine, giving him a strange look.

“What?” Aomine tries to sound casual, but he knows this is probably still about those damned shoes.

“Did you really think I wouldn’t find them?”

“I... uh.” Aomine gives a helpless shrug. “I didn’t know what else to do, okay? I didn’t want to seem like a huge creep or something.”

“So you tossed them into the bushes?”

Aomine pauses. “It... ah… Okay, if you put it like that, it does sound weird.” He straightens up, tentatively presenting Tetsu with a grin. “But it worked out in the end, didn’t it?”

“Kind of,” Tetsu grimaces, and rolls up his sleeves, revealing a bunch of scratches. “I had to fight two cats for the box. Next time, try taping it shut, okay?”

Aomine tries not to laugh. He really didn’t account for cats. “Okay,” he agrees, holding up his fist. “But next time, maybe you could just come to the store with me and pick them out?”

Tetsu eyes him for a moment, but eventually, he smiles. He bumps their fists together, and nods. “Yes, we could do that.”


End file.
